Posts Tagged ‘Reverend Wright’

What does Progressive Leftist Bill Maher do when he is unhappy with President Obama? He resorts spouting anti-Semitism. This past Friday Maher said (video below):

“I heard him a couple of times saying, “You know what? We met the Republicans what they asked, and then we gave them more.” That’s like your lawyer saying to you, “You know, I went into the chambers with the judge and the prosecutor, and my first offer was 40 years to life for you. And I think I can get your tailgating charge moved up to manslaughter. And that’s my first offer.” What is wrong with these people? He is a terrible negotiator. Does he not even know a Jew?”

Adding an exclamation point to his bigotry, Maher then showed a poster for replacing Glenn Beck on Fox News that depicted Joe Lieberman doing a program called, “Morning Jew.”

For years bigotry has been gaining traction in Leftist circles. In earlier years it manifested itself mainly on the Left’s fringes with the likes of Louis Farrakhan and Pastor Wright. It is becoming more mainstream in the Left. Maher joins other Leftist bigots, as previously post on this Blog:

When examples of racism and bigotry from the Left are outed, inevitably Progressive elitists offer excuses such as “they know what is in the person’s heart and therefore that person could not be a racists”. The Left has wrapped racism in the covers of political correctness for their own continence. This is a dangerous slippery slope that can lead to fascism. It is the same slide that allowed half the country to vote for president a man who admittedly attended a bigoted church for twenty years.

In early June, Leftist Helen Thomas came out of the closet. As posted on June 5, 2010, long-time White Housereporter and self-proclaimed “proud to be a liberal” Thomas (“Liberal Thomas …”) told Jews in Israel that “Theyshould go home…. To Poland, Germany.” The fact that Jews were nearly gassed into extinction just a half a century earlier in these same two countries was not lost to Thomas.

While Thomas resigned after her words were caught on tape, the press and Liberals gave her pass on the anti-Semitic rant. These Liberals burry any story that exposes the Progressive movement’s deep-seated racist beliefs that go hand-in-hand with their superiority complex.

This week another well-known Left-winger, producer Oliver Stone, has gone public with his bigotry. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Stone made the following statements:

About Jews:

America’s focus on the Jewish massacre was a product of the “Jewish domination of the media. …… Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed].” Mr. Stone, your knowledge of history is lacking and your logic flawed. You did not mention the Stalin signed a “Non-Aggression Pact” with Hitler and brutally attacked Poland in 1939 with his then Nazi partners.

“There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”

Translation: Stone is an apologist for the Holocaust and Israel and the Jews are responsible for the problems of the world.

Mr. Stone, you are just another bigot, but with money and a well-healed propaganda apparatus. Fortunately, General Dwight Eisenhower understood revisionists like you would come along when he famously said: “Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” Ironically one of those “bastards” turned be a famous film producer who would make Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minster, proud.

About Hitler, Stalin, Chavez and Iran’s Mullahs:

Stone said that his upcoming Showtime documentary, “Secret History of America,” seeks to put Hitler and Communist dictator Joseph Stalin “in context.” …… ” Hitler was a Frankenstein but there was also a Dr Frankenstein. German industrialists, the Americans and the British. He had a lot of support.” Mr. Stone, by “context” you mean revisionist propaganda. Stalin brutally murdered millions of his own people and Hitler was responsible for killing tens of millions. See them in a positive context requires a special type of perversion.

Stone slammed the U.S. policy toward Iran as “horrible.” “Iran isn’t necessarily the good guy, but we don’t know the full story.“

Translation: In Stone’s perverted world, despots are acceptable if they agree with his Progressive beliefs. Stone pushes blame for Hitler and Stalin on Capitalist, keeping with these Progressive views. Finally, he justifies modern dictators because they offset the power of American, who he views with disdain, again in keeping with Progressive views

The number of Progressives on the Left who have expressed racist, anti-Semitic and/or anti-American views is growing. Stone and Thomas are part of a group that includes the likes of Jesse Jackson, Reverend Wright and Luis Farrakhan and many others. It seems more than coincidence that these deep-seated views boil to the top only after America elects its most Progressive President.

Middle-of-the-road Leftist have for too long accepted racists within their larger group in the hope that they would mellow as the Left obtained political power. The opposite has occurred. As Plato so aptly said: “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

The silence from the Left overwhelming. The silence from our President is a tragedy.

For some, the election of Barack Obama as President was a major event in shaping current views of America and American politics. In Obama we had a person with little experience or credentials elected on the vague promises of” hope” and “change”. We also had a person that had radical Left-wing tendencies who associated with people of questionable character.

For those that saw Obama as a radical Left-winger, our worst fears have come to pass. Those that saw him as a middle of the road Democrat were just wrong and didn’t properly read the tea-leafs.

One guest to this Blog, Jim Mahoney, circulated a lengthy letter (include below) with his concerns about Obama a few weeks before the election. It is a useful piece for recalling the euphoria that many had going into the election, as well as the despair of at least one voter. It is fair to state that Mahoney was right. We have in Obama a Radical Leftist whose lack of experience has resulted in a disaster for the Country for the past year and a half.

Thoughts on the Election, by Jim Mahoney, 10/15/08

As I write this we are less than three weeks away from the conclusion one of the lengthiest and most expensive presidential campaigns in the history of our nation. It has also been one of the most divisive, literally pitting friends and family members against each other. We are now left with two candidates who are neither particularly inspiring, nor the first choice of their respective party’s base. This lack of inspiration has led some people to believe that John McCain and Barack Obama are merely two sides of the same coin and there would be little or no difference in electing either of them president. This would prove to be a grave error. The United States is faced with a series of challenges that are unprecedented in our history and the character and integrity of the man occupying the Oval Office is vitally important. This is the most consequential election of our lifetime with the potential to irreparably change the very foundations of our economy, our national security and our American culture.

At a time when character and candor are so important we simply cannot trust Barack Obama to be leader of the free world. Little is known about him and even after two years of campaigning he is still very much a stealth candidate. Even those who support him are hard pressed to name a single legislative accomplishment or articulate a clear understanding of his positions and plans for where he wants to take this county. His public persona has become an odd combination of a deity figure and old school Marxist icon complete with “spontaneous” performances by young school children singing about his virtues and young men in paramilitary uniforms chanting about the opportunities he has provided for them.

Let me preface this by saying, as one must these days, that I have nothing personally against Barack Obama. He seems like a nice enough individual and he is an effective speaker when he stays on script, but when you strip away the façade it is clear that the clothes have no emperor. Every aspect of Obama’s career appears to have been calculated to prepare him for running for president. Indeed, it seems as if every office he has held as been used only as the stepping stone for the next office. From voting “Present” over 130 times in the Illinois State Legislature to the wall of secrecy surrounding his associations with radicals, racists and felons, he has avoided taking positions on any issue unless it is with the benefit of polling and focus groups. He is also being aided and abetted by a press corps that is more lapdog than watchdog; but I’ll have more to say about the press later.

The thing that scares me the most about Barack Obama is the way he tells lies with such apparent ease. In his book and in a video shown at the Democrat convention, he told a charming story that happened when he was nine years old. As he tells the story he was sitting on his grandfather’s shoulders at a parade in Hawaii honoring the Apollo astronauts when they splashed down after a moon landing. He was waving a small American flag and his grandfather told him, “Boy, Americans – we can do anything if we put our minds to it!” This is a very heartwarming moment; the only problem is that it could never have happened. First of all, there were no parades in Hawaii for any of the Apollo astronauts who landed on the moon. Secondly, in the early moon landing missions that occurred about the time Obama was nine years old, there was a concern that the astronauts might bring back some sort of contamination. When the astronauts boarded the aircraft carrier after splashdown they immediately entered an isolation trailer that was taken directly to the Johnson Space center in Houston for three weeks of isolation; again, no opportunity for a parade.

In another story he reveals that his Uncle was with the first American troops to liberate Auschwitz and was so profoundly affected by the experience that when he returned home he went in the attic and died a short time later. This is another touching story that turns out to be another lie. Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians not the Americans. After they were called on it, the Obama campaign said that his uncle was actually part of the unit that liberated Buchenwald. If you had a family member who had gone through such a profoundly troubling event, wouldn’t every single detail be indelibly etched in your mind? If he can make an error on such a key detail it shows either his lack of historical understanding or that he completely fabricated another life event. Some may quibble that these are small details when examined in the context of the whole, but if Obama is so willing to lie about these relatively small things it makes me wonder what other things he is willing to lie to us about.

The late, great Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Even in the dark days of World War II there may have been differences of opinion on how to achieve goals but there was fundamental agreement on our need to achieve victory. I am afraid that we have now reached the point in this country where there is no longer a concept of a single objective truth. We have slipped into an alternate reality in which the “correct” position on any given issue is both dictated and reinforced by the media, and the American Electorate is too preoccupied watching “American Idol” to even notice the deception.

I like to think of myself as an informed individual who does research before reaching a conclusion. I obtain information from a variety of sources such as newspapers, radio, television and websites to identify the relevant issues. So it is more than a little disconcerting to realize that my vote can be cancelled out by someone whose entire grasp of the issues consists of repeatedly chanting “Yes We Can” like a Parrot on Prozac. Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but “Hope” is not a public policy and “Change” for its own sake is potentially destructive. As I watch it all unfold I can no longer stand the frustration of watching the very real possibility that we could hand over the reins of power to an empty suit Socialist who speaks in bumper sticker slogans while leaving out any details that would allow us to make an informed choice about his qualifications and policies. This is a man who was described in the Democrat debates by both Hillary Clinton and his own running mate Joe Biden as unqualified to be President.

I have reached the point where I can no longer stay engaged in this campaign and hope to maintain my own sanity. I can either start yelling at the television like an old guy in Miami, or I can do something about it and move on. I began writing this as a thought piece to myself to blow off some steam and it quickly grew to over 4,000 words. I have decided to release it to people whose opinions I value, regardless of their position on the political spectrum. Why am I doing this? Well, for one thing it’s much cheaper than therapy. Maybe I have a compelling need to tell everyone that I can see the man behind the curtain so I can’t be blamed if it all comes crashing down on Election Day. Or maybe I just wonder if I’m the only one who sees what’s going on here and how dangerous it is for our future. Regardless, after releasing this I am going dark and avoiding all news broadcasts, political blogs and electoral maps. If we are indeed about to slip into Socialism, I’m not going to spend the next three weeks beating myself up about it.

Is it just me, or is anyone else tired of hearing why we should care what the “Independent” and “Undecided” voters think about this election? To me it all just amounts to massive pandering to a group of people who have no core convictions. Why does somebody who puts more thought into what they want from the salad bar than their choice for President get to decide for the rest of us? Even more frightening is the prospect that people are voting for Obama without even knowing or caring about his positions. Howard Stern recently aired an unintentionally enlightening piece in which Obama supporters were asked if they agreed with his positions on certain issues. Even when the positions described were actually John McCain’s, they were all still enthusiastic in their support for Obama. Behold the ACORN voters!

The average American who receives their information only from newspapers and the network news is missing out on a lot of information that would shed some light on Barack Obama. For example, the media have failed to examine Obama’s fascination with Saul Alinsky, a 1960’s activist who is known as the “father of modern American radicalism”. Alinsky wrote a book called “Rules for Radicals”, a handbook on how to bring down American institutions. The Obama campaign has adopted many of Alinsky’s tactics and he and his wife Michelle frequently use Alinsky quotes in their speeches.

Then there are the troubling questions about the extent of Obama’s connections with William Ayres, a member of the Weathermen who bombed New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the United States Capitol building in 1971, and The Pentagon in 1972. Ayres remains unrepentant to this day and, in a New York Times interview ironically published on September 11, 2001, regrets that he wasn’t able to do more.

Ayers is a fixture in liberal Chicago politics and Obama launched his campaign for the Illinois State Senate at a reception at Ayres’ home. During the current Presidential campaign, Obama initially claimed not to know Ayers and said that he was “just a guy in the neighborhood”. In fact Obama and Ayers had worked closely together for seven years on the Chicago Annenberg Challenge Project, an attempt to “transform” the Chicago school system and radicalize students at an early age. Attempts to research the exact connection between Obama and Ayers have been unsuccessful since the University of Illinois is blocking access the all records pertaining to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama and Ayers also worked together in another non profit organization, the Woods Fund. Some recipients of Woods Fund grants included an Arab group that calls for the extermination of Israel and providing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens and Jeremiah Wright’s church. If Obama were applying for a government job he couldn’t receive a security clearance based on his relationship with William Ayers alone, yet he is poised to receive the ultimate security clearance of the Presidency.

The Obama campaign would also have us believe that he sat in the pew for 20 years listening to the racist sermons of Reverend Wright without having it affect his world view. Obama initially denied ever having heard Wright deliver a racist sermon and said he could “no more deny Reverend Wright than I could deny the black community.” After several videos of Wright’s inflammatory sermons (produced by Wright’s own church) came to light, Obama quickly threw Wright under the bus by denouncing his words while still not admitting to having heard them himself.

Obama would also like us to ignore his relationship with convinced Chicago real estate developer Tony Rezko who assisted Obama in getting his house at a below market rate. Obama reciprocated by rewriting the Chicago low income housing rules to allow Rezko to make millions of dollars by providing substandard low income housing units which now lie boarded up and vacant. Is there any doubt that if John McCain had engaged in any one of these activities he would have long since been forced to withdraw from the campaign. Why is it too much to ask that the networks take a few reporters off of the very important task of digging up dirt on Bristol Palin’s pregnancy or interviewing the prison camp commander of the Hanoi Hilton prison camp and send them to Chicago to look into Obama’s relationships?

Despite the ample evidence of Obama’s shady associations, the recent events in the credit market may serve to be the final game changer in this campaign. The unfortunate fact of political life is that economic uncertainty will usually favor the party that does not currently hold the Whitehouse. However the subprime mortgage meltdown, precipitated in large part by the failures in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were caused precisely by the policies that Barack Obama would perpetuate. While some are ready to describe the credit meltdown as a failure of Capitalism, the real failure lies in the government’s manipulation of the financial markets in order to enact social policy. Based on the faulty premise that home ownership is a right regardless of ability to pay, banks were required under Fannie and Freddie to make loans by a government policy that any third grader on the playground knows is doomed to failure; you don’t lend money to someone who will not pay you back. Fannie and Freddie hid their activities with fraudulent accounting practices that would have landed the CEO of any public corporation in prison. They also bought some influential friends in Congress with large campaign contributions, including the Democrat Presidential candidate. Barack Obama is the second highest recipient of Fannie Mae campaign contributions over the last 10 years although he has served in the Senate for only a little over three years. How, exactly, does this qualify him to clean up the mess?

If you believe nothing else about who is truly culpable in the Fannie and Freddie debacle, ask yourself the following question. Our current congress has shown a willingness to call for an investigation of wrongdoing in the Dog Catcher’s office if a conservative or republican is in any way involved. Why are they so reticent to get to the bottom of the single largest financial failure in U.S history?

I also have to wonder why same media that two years ago were providing nonstop coverage of every detail of the allegations against Congressman Mark Foley are now strangely silent on what caused the greatest financial collapse in American history. I guess it’s probably the same reason they told us in 2004 that we absolutely needed to elect a president who had served in Viet Nam while imposing no such requirement in this election; they need to help their chosen candidate. The media are determined to get Obama across the finish line even if they have to drag him. This just in; Florida Democrat Congressman Tim Mahoney (no relation) who defeated Mark Foley in 2006 by promising “a world that is safer, more moral” is himself involved in a sex scandal. Mahoney agreed to pay $121,000 to a former mistress who had worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him He also promised the woman a $50,000 a year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising. What’s that? You didn’t hear anything about this on the evening news? I’m not surprised.

This is just a small part of the shameful conduct the media has displayed in this election cycle. When looking back, future historians will note that journalist dropped any remaining pretense of objectivity during this election cycle and shamelessly and openly supported a presidential candidate. We saw one reporter who went from raising legitimate concerns about Obama’s lack of experience back in February 2008 to having tingles going up his leg upon hearing an Obama speech only a few months later. We had another reported who has an actual financial interest in seeing Obama elected to help sales of her book being allowed to moderate the Vice Presidential debates.

John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate has forced the media and liberals into providing us with a number of through-the-looking-glass moments that reveal their true character. For example, we have now been told that a woman who got ahead by means of her own ambition and drive and (not on her husband’s name) to serve two terms on city council, two terms as mayor and currently as governor is unqualified to serve as Vice President while a man who was a “community organizer” and served a total of 143 days as a U.S. Senator is unquestionably qualified to be Commander in Chief. After lecturing us for the past 30 years that women can have it all with both a family and a career, liberals are suddenly concerned that Sarah Palin might not be able to give adequate attention to her children because of the demands of being Vice President. Finally, Obama supporters openly call her the most horrible of names that would never be tolerated if said by conservatives about women or any other minority.

That’s it for now. In my next installment I’ll examine what an Obama Presidency would mean for our country. Let me know your thoughts about the election and feel free to share this with your friends if you like. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time.

Helen Thomas, the White House reporter and unabashed Liberal, resign her position today from Hearst Corporation after her anti-Semitic rant last week was caught on video. As the photo shows, President Obama seemed to have a warm relationship with Ms. Thomas. This would not be disturbing as a chance relationship with a bigot can happen to anyone. But when considered in totality, Barack Obama has had too many relationships with unscrupulous characters to have occurred by chance.

Anthony Van Jones was appointed by Obama as his “Green Jobs Czar”. Jones, a avowed Communist once said:, “I met all these young radical people of color – I mean really radical, communists and anarchists. And it was like, This is what I need to be a part of”. After the information of Van Jones got out to the press, he was forced to resign.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright was Obama’s pastor for 20 years. Obama remained in his racist church until Wright’s bigotry got public attention, after which Obama threw Wright under the bus.

Father Michael Pfleger, a radical Catholic priest is an old Obama crony from Chicago. Pfleger is also good buddies with fellow Chicagoan Luis Farrakhan, who is a racist and anti-Semite..

William Ayers, a founding member of the radical group the Weather Underground, was on a Board with Obama.

ACORN, the disgraced gang was disbanded this year after it became involved with various criminal activities. Obama previously worked for ACORN and remained close to the organization.

The above partial list of associates should have made Barack Obama unfit for the Presidency. History will write about how this man with so many unscrupulous relationships duped the mainstream media and electorate into believing he was not tainted by their radical and bigoted beliefs.

Reverend Jeremiah Wright is one liberal the mainstream media and their Progressive allies try to ignore. They fear his words further connect this racist preacher to Obama thereby damming and an embarrassing the Left.

The liberal elites have two standards when defining racism. Should you be part of the Progressive Left, you get a pass on racist behavior. This pass is often associated with a phrase like, “we know what’s in the man’s heart”. Should you not be a part of the “club”, then there is zero tolerance for anything that even smacks of as racism. This bizarre bifurcation damages race relations and promotes bigotry on the Left.

In the case of Obama’s association with Reverend Wright, we were told to accept Obama’s claim that he was unaware of Wright’s racist sermons. This is not credible given that Obama sat in Wright’s pews for 20 years, was married by Wright and used a Wright coined phrase for the title of his famous book.

Finally, during the campaign on March 8, 2008 Obama was forced to respond to the Wright issue and did so with typical flare, a prepared speech that while elegant, did not address Obama’s inappropriate behavior. Remarkably, Obama threw his grandmother, the woman who raised him, under the bus when he stated:

“I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.”

However, Obama was not through using the bus. In keeping his modus operandi, he shortly thereafter threw Wright under the bus when he became too great of a political liability.

Wright has not gone away quietly. The Associated Press has recently obtained a copy of a letter in which Wright stated that he is “toxic” to Obama and that the President “threw me under the bus.” Wright also stated that his pleas to release frozen funds for Haiti would be ignored since “No one in the Obama administration will respond to me, listen to me, talk to me or read anything that I write to them. I am ‘toxic’ in terms of the Obama administration.”

Within a month of Obama’s inauguration, Attorney General Eric Holder chided American saying: “Though the nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.” Mr. Holder, many Americans would agree with your comment. However, they would also agree that the bifurcated approach to racism followed by you and your fellow Progressives is at the root of this fear. It would be interesting to get the President’s former mentor, Reverend Wright’s, view on cowardly behavior with his dealings with the President.

As a member of the American Jewish community, I was amazed and disturbed by the support we gave Mr. Obama with over 80% of our vote. Candidate Obama’s Progressive political views were well known to be eerily similar to those of Progressives in Europe who have harbored anti-Israeli views for decades. However, we gave Mr. Obama a pass on this connection. When we learned that Obama attended a racist church for 20-years with a preacher who expressed staunchly anti-Israel, if not anti-Semitic views, we did not ask why he stayed it the church or what was in his heart. Like many charismatic leaders, many saw in Barrack Obama what they wanted to see, not reality.

There were voices in the Jewish community that saw a different vision of Barrack Obama including ex-New York Mayor Ed Koch, TV commentator Bernard Goldberg, comedian Jackie Mason, commentator Jonah Goldberg, and others including the author of this Blog. But, we were then considered on the fringes of the community. Unfortunately, Obama’s actions since becoming President has brought our view into mainstream. Better that we should have been wrong.

Today the mainstream World Jewish Congress took the unusual step of taking out a full-page advertisement in the Wall Street Journal that was highly critical of President Obama. The entire content of this ad is posted below that makes the following points:

We are concerned about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel.

We are concerned that the Jewish state is being isolated and delegitimized.

Mr. President, we are concerned about the dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel.

Why does the thrust of this Administration’s Middle East rhetoric seem to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks … Every American President who has tried to broker a peace agreement has collided with that Palestinian intransigence, sooner or later.

Another important question is this: what is the Administration’s position on Israel’s borders in any final status agreement?

And what are America’s strategic ambitions in the broader Middle East? The Administration’s desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known. But is friction with Israel part of this new strategy? …… History is clear on the matter: appeasement does not work.

In that spirit I submit, most respectfully, that it is time to end our public feud with Israel and to confront the real challenges that we face together.

I commend the World Jewish Congress for taking this courageous step. It is time for the American Jewish community to throw off the bonds of Progressivism since the State of Israel cannot coexist with its philosophy. Our community must now make a choice. As the Reverend Wright said:”The chickens have come home to roost.”

Full Text of Letter from Ronald S. Lauder to President Obama

15 April 2010

Dear President Obama:

I write today as a proud American and a proud Jew.

Jews around the world are concerned today. We are concerned about the nuclear ambitions of an Iranian regime that brags about its genocidal intentions against Israel. We are concerned that the Jewish state is being isolated and delegitimized.

Mr. President, we are concerned about the dramatic deterioration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Israel.

The Israeli housing bureaucracy made a poorly timed announcement and your Administration branded it an “insult.” This diplomatic faux pas was over the fourth stage of a seven stage planning permission process – a plan to build homes years from now in a Jewish area of Jerusalem that under any peace agreement would remain an integral part of Israel.

Our concern grows to alarm as we consider some disturbing questions. Why does the thrust of this Administration’s Middle East rhetoric seem to blame Israel for the lack of movement on peace talks? After all, it is the Palestinians, not Israel, who refuse to negotiate.

Israel has made unprecedented concessions. It has enacted the most far reaching West Bank settlement moratorium in Israeli history.

Israel has publicly declared support for a two-state solution. Conversely, many Palestinians continue their refusal to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist.

The conflict’s root cause has always been the Palestinian refusal to accept Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people. Every American President who has tried to broker a peace agreement has collided with that Palestinian intransigence, sooner or later. Recall President Clinton’s anguish when his peace proposals were bluntly rejected by the Palestinians in 2000. Settlements were not the key issue then.

They are not the key issue now.

Another important question is this: what is the Administration’s position on Israel’s borders in any final status agreement? Ambiguity on this matter has provoked a wave of rumors and anxiety. Can it be true that America is no longer committed to a final status agreement that provides defensible borders for Israel? Is a new course being charted that would leave Israel with the indefensible borders that invited invasion prior to 1967?

There are significant moves from the Palestinian side to use those indefensible borders as the basis for a future unilateral declaration of independence. How would the United States respond to such a reckless course of action?

And what are America’s strategic ambitions in the broader Middle East? The Administration’s desire to improve relations with the Muslim world is well known. But is friction with Israel part of this new strategy? Is it assumed worsening relations with Israel can improve relations with Muslims? History is clear on the matter: appeasement does not work. It can achieve the opposite of what is intended.

And what about the most dangerous player in the region? Shouldn’t the United States remain focused on the single biggest threat that confronts the world today? That threat is a nuclear armed Iran. Israel is not only America’s closest ally in the Middle East, it is the one most committed to this Administration’s declared aim of ensuring Iran does not get nuclear weapons.

Mr. President, we embrace your sincerity in your quest to seek a lasting peace. But we urge you to take into consideration the concerns expressed above. Our great country and the tiny State of Israel have long shared the core values of freedom and democracy. It is a bond much treasured by the Jewish people. In that spirit I submit, most respectfully, that it is time to end our public feud with Israel and to confront the real challenges that we face together.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, closed its door this week. This is not remarkable given ACORN’s corruption. However, what is remarkable about AOCRN’s disintegration is how it occurred. Unlike Nixon, who a generation ago was brought down by the mainstream media doing their job, it took Fox News and the Blogosphere to out this group. Why? Because the mainstream media is no longer willing to take on any interest that supports the Progressive cause.

Another hiccup in outing the ACORN scandal was its friends in high places. ACORN was an important partner to the Democrat Party. They contributed funds to the Party and were in line to get a big payday from the Democrat Congress before the scandal became public. ACORN turned out votes for Obama and Democrats, even with some for people who did not exist. Yes, they took Chicago politics national.

ACORN also had a friend in Barrack Obama. He not only worked for ACORN in earlier years, but considered them a close confidant until the political heat got turned up. Look at the brief video below and hear the President’s own words about his association with ACORN a few years ago.

When you add the President’s ACORN connection to his other questionable associations to radicals like Bill Ayers, Reverend Wright, Van Jones and others, the picture indicates what is in the man’s heart. But not to worry on the Left. The President’s apologists will excuse this is just another tempest in a teapot and another effort by the Loony Right to discredit him. Wow, and we thought the Nixon gang was paranoid.

As we approach the New Year it is appropriate to reflect on the first year of Barack Obama’s Presidency. This Blogger’s differences with Obama began with the early “outing” of Reverend Wright issue. The disconnect between Obama’s campaign rhetoric and sitting in a bigoted church for 20 years was too great to get past. It would trump any his political views.

The day after the election, concerns about Obama’s past were made irrelevant and the issue changed to how he would govern. Many believed that Obama would move to the center, typical of most presidents after their election. This was not to be the case with Obama. Instead, he is governed from the far Left, which is being reflected in his historically low poll numbers going into his first New Year in office. The American majority is centrist, tilting towards conservative. It has become obvious that Obama has no intention of governing for that majority, but instead will focus on remolding America in a Leftist-European manner.

Liberal columnist, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, has the good fortune to have a conservative brother, Kevin, who she allows to rant in her column once a year. Not to worry Maureen, every family has at least one of them! Last week Kevin included his reflections for 2009 that speaks well for what middle America thinks of the “goings-on” in this country. Not to reinvent the wheel, I’m pleased to publish Kevin’s reflections below.

To President Obama: Thank you for saving the Republican Party and for teaching all of us that too much of anything is a bad thing.

To Bill Clinton: You did too much work on Northern Ireland for the Nobel committee. Next time, do nothing.

To Harry and Nancy: “The Twilight Zone” once had an episode where the town got the exact opposite of what it wanted. Farewell, Harry!

To John McCain: Thank you for your chivalry in banning Palin attack dogs – including my sister – from the campaign plane.

To Sarah Palin: Keep up the good work. Anyone who annoys Keith Olbermann that much is a friend to all of us.

To Glenn Beck: Thanks for being the only journalist interested in stories that used to win Pulitzer Prizes.

To Al Franken: So, 250 years of Senate tradition trashed. Stuart Smalley would have done better.

To Desirée Rogers: Get back to the gate. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson can’t get in.

To the Salahis: Thank you for showing us that shame has no bottom.

To Valerie Jarrett: So much for the Olympic Village in Chicago. Whoops.

To Chris Dodd: The only thing lower than your polls is your mortgage interest rate.

To Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen: The military should be more interested in the men and women who serve than in celebrating diversity.

To the Democratic Senators: Go last next time; the bribes are much bigger.

To Sheldon Whitehouse: You, senator, are an idiot.

To Dick Cheney: You, sir, are a patriot. Thanks for firing back.

To President Bush: Thank you for your dignity. Did you really start the plague in the 14th century? Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

To Hillary: Who knew how much you would be missed?

To Al Gore: A global warming conference in the middle of a Copenhagen blizzard is not a good visual.

President Obama will ultimately be judged by deeds and not his words. Unfortunately, in this area the President has proven to be just another politician, creating an image that does not match his deeds. I submit three examples:

Climate Change – President Obama has frequently used the threat of imminent crises to further political agendas. One such crisis is the catastrophe that will come from man-made global warming. Irrespective of one’s beliefs of the reality of the crisis, President Obama has not run his Presidency in a manner of a true believer. The President has used Air Force One, the largest private jet in the world, to travel like few of his predecessors. This included a trip to Copenhagen in the failed effort to get the Olympics to come to his hometown, Chicago; then there were two additional trips to Scandinavia within 10 days, one to collect the Noble Peace Prize and the other ironically to address climate change; and now the President is vacationing in Hawaii, perhaps the furthest point he could find from Washington and still be on American soil. How many tons of carbon has the President spewed into the atmosphere during these jaunts? Either the President is not a true believer or feels his position exempts him from “walking the walk”.

Obama the Athlete – Those who watch NFL football have seen the President catching a pass in a commercial that extols the virtues of exercise for children. While the message is noble, this picture of the President does not match his decision to smoke cigarettes, perhaps the unhealthiest habit that a teen can pick up. What message does this hypocritical behavior send to our youth?

On Fatherhood – The President can also be seen in commercials promoting fatherhood. While again a noble cause, his message is disingenuous. In the short commercial the President states “It doesn’t have to be hard” to be a good father. While a nice thought, this statement is just false. Being a good father is anything but easy. It takes sacrifice that will only come when fatherhood is thought of as a responsibility and obligation to those of us who father children. Sugar-coating the message will not make better fathers. In addition, the President’s has shown questionable parenting skills by exposing his two children in their formative years to a bigoted preacher. What message did he expect these young girls to take from Reverend Wright’s rants?

Politicians creating images that do not match reality is not new. During Franklin Roosevelt’s Presidency he was not photographed in a way that would show his paralysis. John Kennedy was presented as a great family man, which he certainly was not. George W. Bush was presented as a fiscal conservative, which he was not. However, a major theme of Obama’s campaign was bringing transparency to Washington and creating a new type of politics. These promises have proven hollow.

Great leaders lead by example. It is unfortunate that during his first year as President that Barack Obama has not met this standard.

Writing a Blog gives has given me the good fortune of receiving information from others on many issues. One interesting article received from an associate was written by a first-generation American of Nigerian descent. More on the article shortly.

Many Americans, including this Bog’s author, do not know who Barrack Obama is and what he believes. This is remarkable given the power of position he has obtained. The void is the result of an effort by the President and his handlers to be secretive on these issues. In addition there has been the total failure of the press to enlighten us on this important information.

Barrack Obama has many staunch backers. Recent polls suggest that there are as many who strongly appose him. His advocates often have come to their positive view of the man based on Obama’s rhetorical and orator skills. Many on the other side have formed negative opinions based on his associations that help indicate who Barrack Obama is.

I had a neutral opinion on Obama until the Reverend Wright matter became public. I could not believe that a person who stayed in the pews of a racist and anti-American church for 20 years didn’t harbor similar views. His pronounced rational for staying in that church seemed disingenuous. This concern was heightened when it became known that Obama had other radical associations, including William Ayers an admitted terrorist from the Weather Underground and others. Even after becoming President, Obama continued his radical associations as exemplified by appointing former Marxist Anthony Van Jones as Green Jobs Czar. Van Jones resigned only after it became public knowledge that he believed the American government was behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. Read the rest of this entry »